Suspect who stabbed Minnesota students at large

MINNEAPOLIS – A University of Minnesota student used her shirt to stanch her roommate's life-threatening wound after a man robbed and stabbed the two students near campus early Monday, police said.

The stabbings happened about 2:20 a.m. near a major intersection in northeast Minneapolis while the women were walking from a downtown bar to their home, police said.

The women, both 21 and sharing a town house about a mile northwest of campus, were taken to Hennepin County Medical Center. A hospital spokeswoman said the women were in satisfactory condition. One of the students is from a small town north of Chicago while the other is from West St. Paul, according to the university.

The robber took $5 from the women, police spokesman Scott Seroka said. The suspect remains at large.

The stabbing is the third violent attack on university students in recent weeks on or near the Twin Cities campus. A man with a gun robbed a female student April 25 near Williams Arena. On April 22, three suspects robbed a 21-year-old man and hit him in the back of the head. There have been no arrests in any of the incidents.

Minneapolis Police Sgt. Jesse Garcia credits the West St. Paul woman and a police officer with saving the Illinois woman's life after the knife cut the main artery in the crook of her arm.

Garcia said the man at first walked by the women and then soon came back, wearing a mask, and put a knife to the neck of the West St. Paul woman. After taking the money, he started to back away with the woman still at knife point. She struggled to get away, and he stabbed her in the back.

He then cut the Illinois woman's arm and fled, apparently spooked by a witness who was shouting, Garcia said.

The less seriously injured woman used her shirt to apply pressure to her roommate's wound before police arrived with a tourniquet kit and continued to hold back the bleeding, Garcia said.

Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information about the robbery, police said.